Fifty Shades of Gray Matter
by ScorplinginTraining
Summary: Walter has recovered his memories from space and he's angry at Paige. Paige is mad at Walter because she still blames him for Tim's departure. When they discover someone is exploiting young genius minds, can they put it all aside to save Ralph?
1. Chapter 1

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **AN: This little plot bunny has been hopping around my brain for a couple of weeks. The Nicks said Walter recovering his memories would have 'fun' consequences, so this story will probably be AU by the time it's finished. I will stick as close to canon as I'm able, but I hope you'll stay with me if I can't. Waige doesn't start out in a good place. However, I will write them into one if it kills me! ;-D Enjoy and let me know what you think!**

The niggling thoughts first started early that morning. They were like a vague dream floating just on the edge of consciousness that couldn't be remembered with any clarity. The more he tried concentrating on them, the more ephemeral they became. The only thing he knew with any certainty was the exact minute they began plaguing him. It happened when Paige removed her beige overcoat to drape it across the back of her chair. Somehow when she revealed the sleeveless, red shirt she was wearing and when that slight whiff of her perfume wafted toward him on the draft caused by her swinging coat, it triggered... something.

Walter initially dismissed the images as inconsequential with a shake of his head. But they continued to pester him at intervals throughout the rest of the day especially when Paige would cross his line of sight. He became more and more preoccupied with trying to capture and hang onto the fleeting impressions, but they always danced tantalizingly out of his reach. Trouble with memory recall was something a genius with a 197 IQ just didn't experience, so he was woefully ignorant of the phenomenon and was unsure how to handle it.

Some time toward the end of the day, Happy stalked over and punched Walter on the arm. She and Ralph had been trying and failing to get his attention for a while, both having called his name several times each.

Rubbing at the sore spot on his bicep and glaring at Happy, he griped, "Ow! What was that for?"

"The kid has a question for you and you've been all but catatonic today," Happy replied, unfazed by the indignant look on her boss's face.

"Ever heard of tapping someone on the shoulder?" He muttered at the mechanic's back as she returned to her work station.

Walter turned toward the grinning boy standing to the left of his desk. "What did you need, Ralph?" He asked.

The young genius handed his tablet to his mentor and said, "I was wondering if you would go over my solution to this problem. I think I have it right, but I'm not sure I did all the steps in the correct order. Happy was helping me because it has an engineering component, but she wasn't absolutely sure either, so we decided we needed your opinion on it."

Soon the closely-matched analytical minds were engrossed in the complicated equation, speaking a language only intelligible to the two of them. It usually consisted of an incomprehensible blend of physics, calculus, and coding jargon sometimes sprinkled with a dash of engineering references.

With all their awareness riveted on the intricate puzzle, the two geniuses didn't notice how closely Paige was watching them. She felt the old, familiar and currently unwelcome tug at her heartstrings. She didn't want to see how amazing Walter was with her son or how happy it made Ralph to have someone understand him so completely and so effortlessly. Not when she was trying so hard to stay mad. With Tim gone, it was getting tougher every day to maintain her irritation with Walter. And perpetuating the pretense of real passion or longing for her long-distance boyfriend was absolutely exhausting. She reminded herself firmly that Tim was good with Ralph too, doing her very best to delude her inner self back into submission. And she tucked the stubborn, tender feelings for Walter back to the dark corners of her heart where they belonged.

"Where did you run across this problem, Buddy? Is it for one of your college classes?" Walter asked Ralph after they felt certain they'd found the correct solution.

"I've received a number of these through my email account at Cal Tech. Each time I submit a right answer, I get another more complicated one a few days later. Here, I'll show you some of the others…"

"Ralph, get your things together. We have some errands to run," Paige interrupted, hating the guilt she felt when she saw the look of disappointment clouding both of their faces. Fortunately she could channel the negativity into the requisite impatience with Walter.

"Can't we stay a little longer?" Ralph all but begged, "It's still early. And we haven't gotten to be together in forever."

 _We can be together_. _Forever_. The words resounded over and over in Walter's head as a passing image of Paige in a black dress sitting on a chaise swam around in the blurry background of his thoughts. But he couldn't quite make it come into focus. What the hell was wrong with him?

"What's wrong, Walter?" The liaison asked, jolting him out of his reverie.

"Oh, uh, nothing," he answered. He didn't feel as comfortable confiding in Paige since, well, since Tahoe really. And her responses to him after Tim left were even more like other normals had always treated him. In this case, he was afraid she might think he was going crazy. Especially considering Walter was afraid he might be going crazy himself.

Turning back to her son and looking at her watch, Paige said, "Ralph, we need to go shoe shopping. You've about outgrown every pair in your closet again. No more arguing. We'll see Walter tomorrow."

"Walter always orders his shoes online. I don't see why I have to go shopping..." Ralph grumbled belligerently under his breath in the tone of a typical pre-teen as if shopping was a torture worse than death. But he obediantly gathered up his things and reluctantly stuffed them in his backpack in spite of his rebellious grousing. He slouched to the door and turned to offer a dejected wave at the older genius who smiled sympathetically back.

As the door shut behind Paige and her son, something occurred to Walter. Ralph didn't understand enough yet to appreciate how he was his mother's whole world…

 _You are my whole world. I'm just a moon that orbits around you._

All at once the floodgates opened and there was no stopping the tidal wave of memories gushing into his awareness with sickening, mortifying clarity.


	2. Chapter 2

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 2**

 **AN: I had to get Waige to rock bottom with this chapter, so they could begin climbing their way up from here. So, beware. Angst alert!**

Paige strolled into the garage the next morning completely unaware of Walter's emotional turmoil or the ripple effect his temperament was already having on the rest of the team. She didn't notice at first that Sylvester was semi-cowering in his desk chair trying without much luck to make himself small enough to be invisible. She didn't catch Toby's raised eyebrows and sarcastic smirks or Happy's sour looks all liberally being tossed in Walter's direction. And worst of all, she walked right past her boss without taking note that his color was high, his mouth was compressed into a razor thin line or his dark eyes were glinting with cold, barely-contained hostility.

She tossed out a general "Good morning" to everyone, but she only got one response in return.

"Is it?" Walter enunciated the two little words with frigid savagery.

Frowning in confusion as she put her purse in her bottom drawer and took off her coat, Paige answered, "Is it what?"

"A _good_ morning?" Came the falsely casual reply.

"Uh, sure…?"

"You see, an android with no feelings or someone who is past all help wouldn't be able to make an accurate assessment as to whether the morning is good or bad."

Glancing up and finally catching on to the underlying thread of resentment, she winced a little at the biting reminder of her own hurtful words. Paige shot back in defense, "What's gotten into you today?"

"Nothing much. Just an hour or so of very unpleasant memories."

The bottom dropped out of the liaison's stomach and over the thrumming of her pulse in her ears, she heard Sly's whispered, 'Uh, oh.' followed by Toby's soft, 'Oh, shit.' And Happy's subsequent, 'Not helping, Doc.'

"Walter, maybe we should discuss this in private?" She managed to say, her lips feeling stiff.

Shaking his head and shrugging, Walter answered, "Why? Everyone in this room knows everything anyway. Everything I said. Everything I did. Everything I _feel_. Oh, wait. That's right, I feel nothing. I was told by an expert I'm just a hopeless, emotionally stunted robot."

"That's not…"

"That's not what you meant? Oh, I think you were pretty clear the other day. But I'm still confused. You know I feel things. You heard me admit as much. At least I'm relatively sure you were actually present when I told you. I told you _I love you_ … and yet you-you still picked Tim. I told you it hurt me and you paraded him around right in front of me. All those months. All those months I was sure you didn't know because you and Cabe and Toby and everyone else stopped me from explaining, but you _knew_?! And you were still all over him right in front of my face? What my android mind fails to compute is _why_?"

"Could I just interject something here?" Toby interjected without permission.

" _NO_!" The combatant pair said simultaneously, their eyes locked on each other's face.

"O-kay. I'm only trying to help." The shrink replied with hands held up in mock surrender.

"I'm pretty sure we've had enough of your kind of help, thanks," Walter sneered ungratefully.

Ignoring their exchange, Paige addressed the accusations leveled at her, " _I_ picked Tim? Me? I'm pretty sure you picked Tim for me. You practically insisted. I gave you two years, Walter. Two _years_ where you kept making me think I had a chance one minute then you would push me away and reject me the next. There's only so much one person can take. So forgive me for making the decision to be with someone who obviously wants to be with me. I gave you every opportunity I could and you made it clear it was best that I move on. And when I did, you immediately tried to ruin it. You seem to forget you were the one who decided speed dating was a fantastic way to be more social, and oh, yeah, you were the _first_ one to date someone else. A person with your IQ should remember little details like that. So don't talk to me about parading things in front of you. When you _finally_ said something, you were oxygen deprived and still making excuses why it wouldn't work. And by then I'd already made my decision. I wasn't going to yank Tim around the way you did me. I'm with Tim no matter how far away you drove him. Get over it." She lifted her chin defiantly challenging him.

The other three pairs of eyes in the room looked back and forth between Paige and Walter like they were watching a bizarre, bitter tennis match.

Walter gave a curt nod, but his shoulders were slumped in defeat and he was no longer able to meet her gaze. Raking an agitated hand through his hair, he said quietly, "I see. So-so when you said it back, uh, you were just…"

Before he could finish voicing his thoughts, Cabe came bursting through the door. "We've got a case, guys. And it's urgent."

"So, nothing new then?" Toby muttered under his breath.

The rest of that day, the team worked together seamlessly as always, but the obvious friction between two of the principal players ruined any claim to harmony among the troops. They cooperated. They kept everyone safe. They completed the mission successfully. Then they left as soon as possible afterwards to escape the antagonism boiling under the surface of every uncomfortable exchange between a peevish Paige and a waspish Walter. Both of them were obviously miserable, but any attempt by Toby or Cabe or anyone else to intervene was instantly and emphatically rebuffed.

oOoOoOoOoO

"Mom, you told me yesterday I was going to see Walter today. I wanted to show him more of the problems I've been solving and sending in. I've been trying unsuccessfully to find the source. I wanted to see if he could help me. We could've asked him to come to dinner with us… you know, like we used to." The boy kept throwing out heavy hints now that Tim wasn't around.

Paige and her son sat across from one another in a red vinyl booth at a diner around the corner from their condo. Using her fork, she rearranged her food on her plate without actually eating any of it. Her appetite had deserted her that morning and had not yet made a reappearance. She hadn't been able to work up the energy to cook dinner, but she made sure they gave Kovelsky's a wide berth so she wouldn't have to contend with running into her boss or any of her other coworkers either. Dealing with more drama was beyond her ability to cope that evening. But now that Ralph's eyes were looking at her hopefully, it made her feel bad. They didn't hang around after hours with the other geniuses nearly as often as they used to and with the latest trouble with Walter, she also couldn't make him any promises for the future.

Giving him a wan smile, she said, "Oh, he's busy tonight. And we had a really tough case today. Maybe next time, okay honey?"

"Is everything alright? You seem tired or something." He was looking at her curiously.

It was times like these when Paige wished he was a little less observant like... she quickly shut down that line of thinking. Walter had occupied enough of her thoughts that day. She refused to let it ruin her time spent with her son away from the garage. "You're right. I am tired. It was a rough day." Truer words had never been spoken. "It's nothing for you to be concerned about, though. Now finish your dinner and you might be able to talk me into some ice cream for dessert."

Ralph gave her a little worried frown. He wasn't as easily distracted by a promised treat like he used to be. It was yet another reminder of how quickly he was growing up.


	3. Chapter 3

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 3**

She couldn't breathe. It felt like the last easy breath she'd taken was still trapped in her lungs unable to escape. The whole nightmare kept playing over and over through her mind causing her to relive the sheer terror, the horrible events standing out in sharp, vivid detail.

Walter would tell her looking back at 'what if' scenarios was useless. Inefficient. But their echoes rattled around in her brain making it nearly impossible to control her panic. What if she'd sent Ralph with his carpool like usual? She hadn't wanted him to detect the heavy tension in the atmosphere around the garage and he would have if he'd caught a ride to school from there like he did on most mornings. Did his fate really rest on a split second decision like that?

What if she hadn't chosen that morning to leave her car at the dealership for some routine maintenance? Or what if she'd asked one of her other coworkers to pick her up from there instead? She had been sipping coffee at her kitchen counter and instantly thought of Cabe. Toby's place was actually closer, but he stayed at Happy's most nights anyway. Plus, she figured the other normal on the team was the only person who could be counted on not to grill her about the situation with Walter. He was better at minding his own business than the others. Even if he brought it up, she knew if she asked him not to, he wouldn't have pressed her. Out of everyone, she knew he would respect her privacy the most.

Paige clutched Ralph to herself in the middle seat of Cabe's government-issued SUV, her hands scrabbling around looking for any signs of damage. She had the absurd thought that she should fasten their seatbelts. But they weren't going anywhere just yet and seatbelts were the least of her worries at that moment with her son's head lolling in her lap, his eyelids droopy and his gaze unfocused. She had just witnessed someone drug and try to abduct her boy!

It wasn't like the time at the cabin. She'd acted on instinct then, hurtling after the injured man who took Ralph. That man didn't have a plan. That man wasn't prepared. He'd acted on impulse. And Walter jumped in the car with her. He always knew what to do. He always stayed calm. Like an android? She suddenly hated herself for calling him that. His cool, cerebral presence had saved all their lives more than once.

This criminal knew all about her son. Knew his routine. Watched for him. But the bastard hadn't anticipated his mother and honorary grandfather, who happened to be a former Marine and government agent, would be watching too, unlike the carpool moms who would have just dropped him off and left.

She could hear Cabe on the phone, but his words were a jumble to her like he was speaking a foreign language, the words garbled into nonsense by the fear still gripping her.

On a loop in her head, Paige just kept seeing a guy in a gray hoodie and black pants come up behind Ralph as he was heading up the sidewalk toward the school. At least she thought the person was male. She couldn't be sure because she only saw him from behind and only noticed him when he started gaining rapidly on her son. The would-be abductor had grabbed the boy's backpack and jerked him backward, covering his mouth and nose with a rag until her son started to go limp. Ralph didn't even have time to cry out for her.

Thank God Cabe was there and saw the whole thing. As Ralph was being dragged toward a waiting van, they were both out of the Homeland vehicle in a flash and took off at a dead run. Cabe drew his service weapon, fired a shot in the air, and yelled, "Stop right there! Homeland Security!"

The shot drew everyone's attention and startled the kidnapper. Ralph had still been cognizant enough to wrench out of the creep's grasp. Her son fell in a heap on the pavement as the man jumped in his van and screeched out of the circle drive in front of the school, nearly clipping another car and barely missing two children in the crosswalk. Seconds later she and Cabe got to Ralph's semi-inert form on the ground.

Paige didn't notice the onlookers and gawkers as she'd snatched up her son and stumbled with him back to the Suburban. Cabe was already calling for help, holding his cell between his ear and shoulder as he took the young genius from her and carried him to the car leaving her to follow helplessly behind gripping the backpack that had slipped off his lax arms.

A few minutes after Paige and Ralph were securely back in the SUV, Walter's Malibu squealed to a halt behind them and he burst out of the driver's door nearly tripping over the curb in his haste to get to them. The incredible relief at seeing him brought tears to Paige's eyes. He flung open the door on her side and immediately started the rapid fire questions, "What happened? What's the matter with him? Is he okay? Who did this?"

She whispered his name and burst into sobs. Deep, wracking, noisy ones. Her whole body shaking, she let herself fall against him, and proceeded to cry all over him. Eyes wide, Walter awkwardly patted and rubbed her back as she shuddered against his shoulder. Cabe answered most of his questions as the genius tried his best to calm the overwhelmed mother.

Things were kind of a blur after that. She told her story what felt like a hundred times to what felt like an entire squad of police. They left those same police officers to interview the other witnesses. Two FBI agents were due to meet the team back at the garage to get the details and talk strategy. By the time they made it back, Ralph was fully recovered and chattering away to Walter about the whole experience, both of them trying to figure things out using their usual brand of logic.

After the adrenaline wore off, Paige was limp and bleary-eyed with weariness, but she knew the ordeal was far from over. All of what was left of her own logic was assembling the scattered pieces of the morning. Her only conclusion was someone, somewhere was after her son. And they were coming again. Soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 4**

"Out of the question," Walter said at the same time Paige said, "No way. You aren't using my son."

FBI Agent Hart was not thrilled to get this assignment in the first place. He was not a fan of the moniker 'Agent Fart' for one thing. He was given the nickname by the smartass shrink the last time he was forced to work with this band of brainiacs. And it had stuck. Even at the bureau. Worse than even the babyish bastardization of his name, was the fact that he'd been outsmarted by the kid and the doofy leader of this arrogant division of dorks. And worst of all, the same gaggle of geeks ended up being right about everything and saving his skin back at the Chinese embassy.

Clenching his jaw, he was able to bite back an angry response by counting to ten. Then twenty. Forcing himself to breathe like they taught him in his anger management class, Hart gritted out slowly, "Let me go over this one more time. Ralph is not the only kid who has been lured into this trap. At least one other kid has gone missing because of the scam. We can offer your son protection while he uses his skills to help us find the people responsible before another kid is snatched. And maybe, just maybe, we have a chance to find the first kid and save her life in the process."

"Mom, I want to help," Ralph implored while looking back and forth between his mother and Walter hoping his mentor would jump in on his side.

Ignoring her son's pleading, Paige said, "Help me understand then. This criminal organization, whoever they are, is targeting child prodigies who attend college. They send the kids puzzles or problems or whatever through their college email accounts to, what, to test them?"

"The details are 'need to know', ma'am," the agent in charge, Backheim, answered shortly. Like his partner, he was also resenting this specific case. He considered the Scorpion team to be slippery and underhanded and they couldn't be counted on to follow the rules or stick to the plans of the bureau. It was annoying to say the least, especially to a by-the-book guy like himself.

"Well, if you want our cooperation in any capacity, we _need to know_ ," Walter retorted impatiently. The Scorpion leader crossed his arms tightly and raised his eyebrows in anticipation of the answers.

"You might as well spill it, Agent Backside, or Ralph isn't going anywhere with you," Toby threw in his two cents as usual.

The FBI men looked to Cabe for help, but he just chuckled and said, "They won't budge, you know. You can't keep us in the dark if you expect our help. Scorpion is contracted to the US Government, so we have a non-disclosure agreement that will cover the confidentiality of this situation."

Shutting his eyes tightly in frustration and rubbing at his aching temples, Agent 'Backside' reluctantly acquiesced with a long-suffering sigh. "These people, whoever they are, have been hacking college records looking for underage students in certain fields of study. It appears they pose a few random questions at first, trying to gage aptitudes. Then they send the students more complicated problems in specific areas. No one gets the whole picture. Everyone just gets pieces of something to solve. But from what we can glean, all the answers from all quarters come together to build something. So far, we've come across lines of code that appear to be a backdoor into a system. What system we haven't yet determined. Another set of solutions came together to make a more efficient long range missile. Parts of it were tweaking engineering issues, while other parts improved the guidance system's functionality. The whole picture is then sold on the dark web to the highest bidder. We determined one of the interested parties for the missile system was North Korea, for example."

"Not good," Happy finally spoke up while considering her participation in solving one of Ralph's email puzzles.

"Not good is a massive understatement. Imagine having America's top young minds working for our enemies. Now do you understand why it's urgent we shut these people down?"

"Not to mention the kids' lives that are in danger, right?" Sylvester asked, frowning in disapproval. "But why target young geniuses? Why not just pick the top college students in general?"

"Because genius kids are less likely to tell anyone or dig into who is sending the material to them just assuming it's coming from the college they attend. They are already socially isolated from their peers, and a lot of them are introverted anyway. And I don't know if you've noticed, but geniuses like to show off their intellect. Not naming any names specifically, of course. Young geniuses in particular are dying to prove themselves in a world of adults, so they would love the positive feedback when they solve something. That's actually kinda brilliant." Toby kicked in his psychiatrist's opinion, shrugging.

"Don't sound so admiring," Paige said, throwing the behaviorist the 'mom look' before turning back to the Feds to ask, "If they are getting the answers they need online, why would they try to kidnap any of the kids."

"They don't go after them unless they start digging too deeply into the source of the original emails. If they keep sending in answers only, the perps leave them alone for the most part," Hart explained.

"I could pose as Ralph and do the work from the garage." Walter suggested.

"That wouldn't work because they have already identified where he lives and goes to school. Even if all the hacking happened at the garage, they will make their next attempt to nab him where he is most vulnerable like the college campus, for instance. However we would have him working over a secure server from a safe house with twenty-four hour guards. That's the best way to keep him safe. These people will come back for him, whether he helps us or not," said Agent Backheim, trying to justify their position.

"If he goes, I'm going with him. No exceptions. I can help him with the hacking and make sure everything is _actually_ secure and untraceable. I want to know for certain he's safe," Walter said, dropping a protective hand on the young genius' shoulder.

"Not going to happen, Walter. They aren't using my son as bait!" Paige argued.

Cabe looked at her with sympathy but told her straight, "This may be the only way you can ensure his safety. I know it's not ideal and you don't like the idea, but I don't think these criminals will give up just because of their failed attempt this morning. The only way to make this end is to catch the bastards."

"Yeah, Mom, I want to help catch the bastards!" Ralph stated, startling a laugh out of everyone except Paige whose eyes narrowed at the Homeland agent.

"Ralph, you will not be repeating that word, if you don't mind. Cabe is going to watch his mouth a little more around you in the future. And my son isn't going anywhere without me," she said emphatically.

Agent Backheim looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "That could work. In fact, it would seem more legit anyway. If anyone notices you, it could pass as a little family vacation. We have a safe house located in the mountains we could use. Well, it's actually two cabins joined together by a basement bunker underneath them that acts as a panic room. There is a computer command center down there you could use."

"What do you mean pass it off as a _family_ vacation?" Paige inquired skeptically while Walter looked askance at the Fed.

"We will give the three of you fake identities to use and rent a vehicle for you under those names. You will just be yourselves when you are working at the cabin, but if you're spotted out in the area, or if you're asked, you will give your false names and say you are on a family holiday until we close this case," the agent said as if it was so simple.

Ralph grinned from ear to ear. "So, if we're going to have to pretend we're a family, I'd better practice, so I don't mess up around anyone, right _Dad_?"

Walter looked surprised at first, but his grin soon matched Ralph's as he ruffled the boy's hair and said, "Right, _Son_." And the two geniuses exchanged a high five.

Paige looked on worriedly. Ralph was already taking _way_ too much pleasure in pretending Walter was his father. And exactly how was she going to explain all this to Tim? Then a disturbing notion occurred to her. She hadn't thought of her boyfriend once during the whole ordeal.


	5. Chapter 5

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 5**

"You can't tell me you don't see what's going on here. You're smarter than that. I can see right through it and I'm all the way on the other side of the world."

"I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me," Paige answered, barely controlling the urge to roll her eyes. The last thing she needed was pressure of any kind from any other source. Truth be told, she really wasn't in the mood to talk to Tim at all, but she and Ralph were being packed off to a safe house with Walter and the FBI soon. She didn't know when she would be able to contact her boyfriend again. Cabe, Ralph, Walter and one of the agents assigned to their security detail were roaming and rummaging around in the other rooms of her condo gathering the things they might need for their little 'get-away' while she was sitting in her bedroom on her laptop trying without much luck to explain everything to Tim. She felt emotionally and physically wrung out and really didn't have the energy to gather her necessities for the trip, let alone field questions from the increasingly agitated former SEAL.

"This has Walter written all over it. I'm sure sequestering you and Ralph away with him and pretending to be a family for an undetermined amount of time was his bright idea. And the fact you and I will be out of contact for the duration is just icing on his cake. He's up to his same old tricks. You should tell him to figure something else out." Tim's face warped then froze for a few seconds as the Skype connection was briefly lost. She stuck her tongue out at his image then instantly felt guilty for being irritated. She reminded herself he did have some justification in thinking Walter was trying to drive a wedge between them.

"Look, Tim, none of this was Walter's idea other than his insistence on going with Ralph to make sure he's safe. You didn't miss the part where I told you my son was almost kidnapped this morning, right?"

"I know and I'm sorry. I'm glad he's okay. But tell me how much use Walter's going to be against armed criminals. Is he going to throw his IQ at them? If it's protection you need, you'd be better off with Cabe. Or me for that matter. Do you want me to try to take a leave of absence? I could be there tomorrow night sometime."

"That won't be necessary. You're new on your job. You shouldn't be requesting time off yet." Starting to feel a little defensive of her boss, she added, "Walter is very concerned for Ralph and he can help with the hacking and cyber-tracking these people. The FBI agents will be there for our safety. And I wouldn't sell him short. I've seen him think his way out of a lot of dangerous situations." Not to mention he'd found the physical strength to hold onto her plenty of times when it was needed, but she felt it was prudent not to bring it up.

Looking disgusted Tim replied, "Concerned for Ralph? Right. Walter will be concerned with trying to hook up with you. You know he thinks he's in love with you."

"That's enough, Tim," Paige said, a note of censure creeping into her voice, "I have no doubt Walter genuinely cares about Ralph. That's never been in question. Okay? And as for hooking up? He's not very happy with me at the moment, so I'm pretty sure that's the furthest thing from his mind." Tim snorted at that, but Paige talked over it, "And even if that was true, which it isn't, you should trust _me_. I've never given you a reason not to. Oh, and how would you know he thinks he's in love with me?"

"He said it. The whole team heard it over the comms. And then I confronted him about it again at Christmas when he gave you that customized laptop. Believe me, he wasn't denying it."

Paige's heart lurched. "When did he say it over comms? I never heard that."

"I think there was some kind of interference or something, but it happened when we were working the national defense case after the disaster that was Tahoe. I never brought it up because I thought it was irrelevant since you're with me. Wait. If you didn't hear it over the comms that day, when did he tell you?"

"Tim…" She'd never shared with her boyfriend the specifics of her private conversation with Walter when he was in space. It was too, well, private. And terrifying. And… precious. She'd done everything in her power to fight the feelings those words had evoked ever since.

"When, Paige? I have a right to know if he's trying to put moves on you. Do I need to have a conversation with him?"

"He told me that day he was hypoxic and stuck in space," she blurted, just wanting Tim to shut up. All she wanted to do was end this topic of discussion. "I told you he recovered his memories from space. Now that he's remembered I heard him say it and I chose to be with you anyway, he's very upset. That's another reason I know he's not going away with Ralph and I just to start something with me."

"Let me understand, he told you he loved you when he was out of his head. I guess I can give him a pass for that. But, when you said you told him what he needed to hear, does that mean you said it back to him? Did you say the words to him you haven't been able to say to me in all the months we've been together?"

Wincing, Paige nodded.

"I see," Tim said, his eyes riveted on hers, "I guess the important question here is… Was it just to save his life? Or did you mean it?"

oOoOoOoOoO

If Paige had ever experienced a worse day, she couldn't remember it. And that included the day she and Ralph were evicted. At least there was the upshot of getting a job on that day.

This day, however, there was no silver lining to be found. First she'd almost lost her son. Then she was forced to agree to let him work with the FBI to find his own abductors. There was no other choice no matter how much she hated it.

Then she and her boyfriend had called it quits. She was still trying to wrap her head around that one. She could have lied, but she had been deceiving herself for far too long already. In a flash of clarity, she'd finally admitted the truth. Walter's confession scared the hell out of her and she'd spent every moment since trying to find reasons to be disappointed in him. Blaming him for everything so she could prove to herself she'd made the right decision. Pointing out all his flaws to herself so she could justify being with someone safe. Normal. Boring. Someone who really didn't have the power to hurt her.

And to cap it all off, she was sitting in the front seat of a rental car with Walter heading toward Yosemite Valley and a cabin where they would live together as a family until they eliminated the threat to Ralph and a number of other genius kids caught in the same web. It hadn't been so bad when her son was awake. He'd acted as a buffer. Paige could let the two geniuses' conversation wash over her and didn't feel the need to contribute. They were making a plan of attack for the mission, so she didn't understand a lot of what they were saying anyway. But now that Ralph was out cold in the backseat, the silence fell over the other two occupants of the car like a dense, icy fog.

It was roughly a five hour drive to their destination. Paige was worn completely out, but she couldn't relax enough to sleep. She needed to try to fix this situation with Walter, but she didn't know where to start. Everything was such a mess.

While she was scrambling for something to say, she heard a quiet 'I'm sorry' from the driver's side.

At first she wasn't sure she'd actually heard it. But when she didn't respond, Walter cleared his throat and said it again, a bit louder, "I'm really sorry."

Suddenly choked up, Paige reached over and squeezed his hand. A whispered, "Me too," was all she could manage to say.


	6. Chapter 6

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 6**

The whole place was a shambles. It figured.

It was evident the FBI didn't have a janitorial staff on retainer. And while the security on the place was enough to keep squatters out of the cabin when it was empty, it didn't prevent Mother Nature from invading. Signs of water damage and traces of vermin were everywhere. A thick coating of grime encrusted the sagging couch and the lopsided coffee table which were the only two pieces of furniture in the main room aside from a broken lawn chair. And every horizontal surface was covered with papers and old take out containers. The musty, moldy smell alone was enough to make Walter want to retreat back to the car. It was frigid inside, but when he went to turn on the heater, it came on with an ominous thunk, wheezed out a few puffs of air that smelled like burning dirt and wires and promptly shut itself off again.

Walter thought things were beginning to look up when Paige fell asleep in the car holding his hand, her cheek resting against his shoulder. The remainder of the drive after that had been long and his muscles had grown stiff because he was afraid to move and risk disturbing her, but at least the quiet in the car was no longer oppressive. And having her in close contact was always welcome considering how rare it had become in the last few months. They had yet to completely clear the air, but the apologies from both parties had helped tremendously to alleviate some of the tension between them.

"Not exactly five star accommodations," he said with a grimace, noting the crestfallen look on Paige's face. When a tired Ralph came tottering in behind his mother, he stopped short, dropping his heavy duffle bag at his feet, scattering motes of dust and cyclones of paper in every direction. Initially the boy had been excited to see the snow blanketing the little cabins and the grounds around them, but his enthusiasm was quickly diminished by the sight of the interior.

Turning to the FBI agents, Walter said, "This is unacceptable. We will not be spending the night here."

Even though the look on his face was more grim than usual when he walked in the door, Agent Hart tried to protest, "This is it. We'll have to make it work…"

"Paige and Ralph are tired. Today has already been too much for them. Tomorrow is soon enough to do something about making this place habitable. Tonight we will be staying in a motel in town. You and Backheim and the other two can stay here if you like. But we're going into town. Now."

"What about your security detail?" Hart fumed impatiently.

"I'll stay up all night and watch if I have to," Walter snapped, "But these two are not staying here tonight." Turning to Ralph, he said, "Get your duffle, Buddy. Paige, we're going somewhere warm where you guys can at least take a hot shower and sleep in a clean bed."

And just like that, the virtual conch was obliterated. Again.

The liaison would normally be frustrated with Walter's autocratic behavior and his lack of tact, but at that moment the only thing she was feeling was gratitude. For once, she was glad for the logical dictatorship. She didn't own clothes for this type of weather and neither did Ralph. The thought of spending the night in that cold, filthy cabin was too overwhelming.

Grumbling something that sounded like 'pain in my ass', the exasperated agent left to tell the other Feds the new plan and they all climbed back into their vehicles and headed into town.

oOoOoOoOoOo

For the second time that morning, Paige peered out the window only to catch sight of Walter and Ralph laughing and throwing snow at each other. They were supposed to be working on the heating unit and shoveling the drive and walkway. She should have found it annoying. Instead, she was finding it way too uncomfortably adorable. She rapped on the glass, giving them a stern look. The two of them jumped guiltily then shrugged apologetically before going back to work, their expressions and mannerisms so alike it was uncanny. No one would ever think to question their father and son cover story.

The night before was a bit weird for her. They had to rent adjoining rooms and leave the door open between them so one pair of agents could stay in the adjacent room to ensure their safety. Ralph had insisted Walter should stay in the room with them, so the two geniuses had shared one of the double beds. It really was no different than the dozens of times she and Walter slept side by side on an airplane coming back from one mission or other, or the times they'd camped out on the roof of the garage or even when she'd fallen asleep against him in the car a few hours ago. But it felt different somehow. It was more intimate. More like the family they were pretending to be.

Paige was feeling a lot more optimistic the next morning. After a good night's sleep, a hot shower and a large stack of pancakes at the local diner, the three of them, with an agent following at a discreet distance, went to the local discount store and bought some warm clothes, cleaning supplies and groceries using the FBI issued credit card and their fake IDs. They looked no different than any other family out shopping for necessities. She spared no expense on the food. If they were going to work for the bureau, the Feds were going to pay to feed them well. But she had to tell Walter and Ralph both at different times to put unneeded items back on the shelf. Just like every other mother and...wife in the store.

She became the task master when it came to the domestic duties. No one challenged her authority in that arena. She decided they needed to make the cabins livable before they could begin any actual computer work even though both the geniuses were itching to check out the system set up and test its capabilities.

She had the Feds picking up all the loose trash and sweeping the floors. Walter started the morning by cleaning the chimneys of the wood burning stoves while Ralph brought in dry wood from the mud room. In no time the stoves were churning out enough heat to make it almost cozy.

After that task was complete, her boss walked up behind her in the kitchen where she was cleaning out the refrigerator. He grabbed a bottle of water and said proudly, "I lit your fire, Paige."

Trying and not quite succeeding to suppress a stream of giggles at the unintended euphemism, she straightened up and turned to face Walter thinking to assign him the next chore on the list. She had no idea how close he was standing to her until she was upright and she had to steady herself for a moment by placing a hand on his warm, solid chest. Paige felt his breath catch as her eyes met his. Then she noticed a smudge of soot on his chin and she automatically swiped at it with her thumb accidentally brushing his full bottom lip in the process. They both froze for an instant and without her permission, all her focus centered on his mouth. Her wildly jumping pulse reminded her why, in the last few months, she had avoided getting this close to him.

He took a step back, cleared his throat and fixed his eyes on his shoes. "I, uh,… Wh-what did you need me to do next?" He said, breaking the spell.

Nothing had changed. All their same issues were still there. And holy crap, she had just broken up with someone else less than twenty four hours ago. Mentally slapping herself, that's when Paige sent him outside to work.


	7. Chapter 7

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 7**

"Whoa!" Ralph breathed, a huge smile lighting up his features, "This set up is _tight_!"

"I realize the quarters will be cramped, but your mom and I feel like this is the safest place for you to sleep at night. Even the FBI agents agree. We'll be able to move some of the boxes…"

"No, _Dad_ ," Snickering, the boy bumped Walter's shoulder with his, before clarifying, "Tight. As in cool. That's what the kids at my school say sometimes. It doesn't refer to the lack of available space. Wow! Look at this hardware!"

Walter couldn't contain his own grin. He winked at Ralph and said, "It is rather, uh, 'tight'. I concur. Even our equipment at the garage isn't this advanced."

Paige could hear the two geniuses raving over the computer paraphernalia in the hidden basement room and as much as she needed them to get busy and help her finish cleaning up, she couldn't stop her own lips from curving upwards as she listened to them gush. They were like two kids in a toy store.

"Hey, Ralph, look. If there's a Vipamz pad, there has to be some kind of gaming system in here…"

Paige peered around the door and cleared her throat. She had cobwebs in her hair, grime caked under her fingernails and she was liberally coated with dirt. All she wanted at the moment was to get done with the mess, take a shower, grab something to eat and collapse for a few hours. But before she could do any of that, she had to get these slackers into gear.

"Hey, Mom!" Ralph enthused, "Isn't this _great_?"

Smiling indulgently and rolling her eyes at the twin expressions of awe as if they'd just excavated the Holy Grail, Paige said, "I'm sure it is even though I wouldn't know a motherboard from a surfboard. I know you guys can't wait to dive in, but we really need to finish cleaning so we'll all have somewhere to sleep tonight."

"Oh, of-of course. Sorry," Walter apologized and the two of them began stacking and clearing out boxes of debris so they could find a place to put a cot. As they got back to work, both geniuses kept looking over at the bank of monitors with undisguised yearning.

It was determined that the basement bunker was the safest place for Walter, Paige and Ralph to stay at night while a pair of Feds would take turns guarding or sleeping in each of the cabins above ground. The trio downstairs could set the security to panic mode and completely lock themselves in while they slept.

The room that housed the computer equipment was the most secure, because the entrance was hidden behind a shelving unit and was lockable from inside. The bunker wasn't large. It had one main room that served as kitchen, sleeping area and storage. Three walls were floor to ceiling shelves containing non-perishables, tools and other supplies. And on the other wall a futon sofa and the door to the tiny bathroom could be found. Everything in the basement was fairly well-organized and neatly arranged at least, but all of it had a thick layer of dust covering it, and all the linens required washing.

oOoOoOoOoOo

After the cleaning efforts were finally done for that day, Walter spent an enjoyable evening completely engrossed in connecting with the secure server, checking for any possible vulnerabilities and establishing a virtually impenetrable firewall. All the while Ralph was checking out the sophistication of the gaming system exclaiming every now and then in pure delight and providing momentary distractions when he called attention to one feature or other.

Once the connection was as safe as he could make it, the older genius contacted Sylvester back at the garage. The mathematician was extremely relieved to hear they were all safe. Walter was thankful Ralph had long since fallen asleep on his cot on the opposite wall of the minuscule room, because the news Sly had to report from his end wasn't good. Almost immediately after the attempted kidnapping, someone had been trying to hack into all of the boy's devices. Fortunately, the Cal Tech emails were backed up to the cloud server Scorpion always used and couldn't be deleted. Walter decided it was best to leave everything of Ralph's that could be traced or tracked back at the garage and let the rest of the team monitor any attempt to breach their firewalls and encryption.

On top of the attempts to get to Ralph through his electronics, someone had tried to break in to the Dineens' condo after they'd left for Yosemite Valley the night before. The perpetrator had been scared off by the uniformed officers watching the apartment, and had unfortunately gotten away before he or she could be caught or identified. The description was much the same as the ones from the bungled abduction. Average height. Slight build. Face, gender and race were obscured by a hooded sweatshirt and baggie, black pants.

All of this information brought the reality of the situation crashing back down. Walter had been temporarily distracted by making the safe house fit to inhabit and enjoying the unencumbered time with Ralph. He was secretly pleased every time the boy called him 'Dad'. But now, it was time to buckle down and find the criminals who wanted to hurt one of the two most important people in his life. So he delved deeply into the task of trying to find the source of the emails.

A little while later, Ralph stirred and groaned. "Hey, Dad?" He muttered in a voice rough with sleep as he squinted against the light from the monitors, "Could you maybe shut it down for tonight? You keep waking me up."

"Sorry, Buddy," Walter whispered. He hastily saved what he was doing and began the shut down process. As he was opening the door to leave, he said a quiet 'Goodnight' over his shoulder, but the boy had already fallen back to sleep. The older genius turned and fondly smoothed Ralph's hair before closing the door behind him.

Walter stepped out into the main room and gingerly slid the shelves back into place. When he turned back around, he nearly ran into Paige who was coming out of the bathroom in a silky, peach-colored camisole and matching shorts under a thick terry robe that was open down the front. He grabbed her arms to steady them both then he released her like she was scalding hot. A blush crept up his neck and stained his cheeks as he stuttered, "Oh, um, I-I… Sorry. Uh, you aren't-you aren't, uh, dressed." He averted his eyes wanting to back away, but he had no where to go.

Paige patted his face. She couldn't resist teasing him when he was rattled. Or at least that's how it used to be when they were still good friends. "You've seen me in less, remember?" She smirked.

Unconsciously, he turned the tables on her when he gave her a melting, admiring look and a slow, crooked, knowing smile emerged, "Oh, yes. Believe me, I remember. Eidetic memory and all." It was her turn to blush as his appreciating eyes passed over her frame…remembering.

Still completely unaware he'd left Paige feeling flustered, Walter stepped around her and pulled his duffle out from under the futon which was now folded out into a bed. There was only a narrow path left leading up to the exit with barely enough room to turn around. He sat on the edge of the mattress and fumbled around in his bag, pulling out a pair of sweats.

Breaking the strained silence that had settled over the two of them, Paige asked, "Is Ralph asleep?"

"Yes. Yes, he is. Oh, and I have some news. It's not great." He related what Sylvester had told him. As the worry stole over her face, he quickly added, "We'll find these people, Paige. I promise I won't let anything happen to him."

She nodded absently, but the little frown between her eyes persisted as she stayed lost in her concerns. She was between him and the bathroom, where he needed to change. Walter stood in front of her awkwardly and when she finally realized he needed to get by, they did an odd little dance trying to figure out how to get around each other. Snorting with amused chagrin, Paige finally crawled onto the futon so he could pass.

Walter emerged from the bathroom a couple of minutes later smelling strongly of toothpaste. She was already settled in, the covers pulled up to her nose. But even with her eyes closed, she was hyperaware of his every movement as he spread out his sleeping bag in the narrow aisle between the futon and the row of shelves by the stairs. She heard him enter the code to lock them in for the night. She heard the snap as he flipped the lights off and noted the heavy darkness that engulfed them even through her closed eyelids. She heard the rustling as he climbed into the bedroll and tried his best to get situated. As tired as she was, Paige lay awake listening to the soft sounds of his breathing, the leaden quiet around them ringing deafeningly.

She was never going to be able to sleep. She couldn't even see her hand an inch from her face. "Walter?" she whispered. It was foolish to whisper. She knew he was awake too.

"Hmm? Everything okay?"

"Yes. Well, no. I'm cold."

"I know. It is a little dank down here. It's well insulated, but not ventilated for proper heating. We do get some benefit from the floor ducts above us, but as you know, heat rises."

"Do you think Ralph is warm enough?"

"I made sure he has the thickest sleeping bag and a blanket. It helps that he's off the ground on the cot. Also the electronics put off some heat and the small space keeps the warmth from them and his body heat trapped in there. He should be fine."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't think about you being on the floor. Not only is it cold, but it's solid concrete. You can't be comfortable."

"I'm…I'll be fine," Walter said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Wouldn't it be more _efficient_ for us to, um, share?" Silence. "I mean if you were up here with me, you would be off the ground, right? And we would have both a sleeping bag and a blanket..." More silence.

After a full minute when Paige was left wondering if he would answer, Walter finally cleared his throat and added, "Plus-plus our, uh, combined body heat? I-I think it could work."

She scooted toward the wall as he stood, unzipped the sleeping bag and laid it over the top of her other covers. Hesitantly, he slid in beside her, lying just on the edge of the small mattress, both of them stiff as planks. It was reminiscent of his awkward sleep over with Happy and Toby.

The dark and the stillness settled over them once again, but neither could relax.

"Can you tell me something?" Walter asked into the inky blackness, "Are you still mad at me about Tim?"

"A little, but I'm trying to get past it," Paige answered. She turned on her side facing his direction even though she couldn't even distinguish his shape.

After a few moments, she asked, "Are you still mad at me about what happened in space?"

He sighed, "Yes. But I feel other things I haven't sorted out yet. Anger is easy for me to identify, but I'm still confused. I don't think I'm ready to discuss it."

"Okay. I'll be here when you're ready." A hush fell between them again, but it wasn't quite as thick.

"Thank you. Do you think it would be best if we set it aside until Ralph is out of danger just like we did for Cabe?" He sounded hopeful.

"Yes. I think that's a good idea. We need to focus our energy. So for the duration, we'll just be Nathan and Haley Phillips on a family vacation with our son Ethan like the fake IDs say. Agreed?"

"Agreed. Even though I've been married before, I really don't know how to be a normal husband. I may need coaching."

Walter could hear the amusement in her voice when Paige replied, "Well I've never been married before, but I have a pretty good idea what to do. And right now I'm going to do something I'm pretty sure most normal wives occasionally do to their husbands in bed."

She could feel him grow rigid beside her.

Then he gasped and yelped, "Damn it, Paige! You're feet are _freezing_!"


	8. Chapter 8

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 8**

 **AN: To you goofballs craving honey, (you know who you are;-) Waige has a loooong way to go before they can indulge. Bee patient! Kudos to Sciencegeek926 for finding a place for it in her story! Made my day. **

Walter had a problem. Actually he had two, no, three problems that were all interrelated.

It was absolutely ludicrous. He was a genius and the head of a government-sponsored, problem-solving team and yet he was unable to think of a satisfactory way out of this particular situation.

It was nine minutes until four in the morning by his estimation. He was unable to look at his watch to verify the time, but that wasn't an issue. Just a fact. The reason he was unable to check the hour was because his company's liaison was currently clinging to him like a barnacle and his right arm was trapped underneath her. In and of itself, that state wouldn't be a much of a problem either. He would normally find her closeness and their shared warmth enjoyable. In reality he had enjoyed it up until this point.

But at the moment, he couldn't feel his right hand and he desperately needed to empty his bladder. It was true he shouldn't have had a cup of coffee while he was tracking those Cal Tech emails. But aside from the diuretic effects, caffeine sometimes boosted his cognitive function and it didn't matter anyway. He could hardly go back and remedy that course of action at this time.

The earliness of the hour made it unlikely Paige would wake up on her own any time soon and he was reluctant to wake her up himself. Because in addition to his urgent need for the bathroom, he was currently experiencing a typical male response to the stimulus of having not just the love of his life, but a much desired sexual partner he'd been dreaming about a short time ago half lying on top of him. One of her legs was wedged between his bringing her hip into close contact with said response.

Not only was that response going to make it tricky for him to relieve the pressure in his bladder when he was finally able to rise, correction – get up, …not much better… it would also be rather humiliating and hard… best to avoid that word altogether, _difficult_ to explain. Since Walter had so much respect for Paige. And she had a boyfriend. Well, that thought helped quell the response a bit…

"Paige," Walter whispered and gently shook her shoulder with the hand that wasn't trapped underneath her. "Paige?" He said a little louder.

"Mmmm. Walter?" She mumbled groggily and she burrowed her face in between his shoulder and neck. Her nose brushed him just beneath his ear and her warm breath stirred his hair, raising goose bumps …among other things. She shifted her weight drawing her body over his and causing him to hiss through his teeth. Was she trying to torture him?

"Paige, I need to get up," he nearly whimpered.

Abruptly, she sat up. He couldn't see her expression, so he couldn't tell if she'd felt his body's reaction to hers. He only knew she sounded embarrassed when she said breathlessly, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… that is, I didn't know I had you trapped."

Throwing back the covers, he staggered through the pitch dark toward where he thought the bathroom was. And he promptly stubbed his toes on the supporting leg of the futon. He let out a grunt of pain and tried to stop himself from falling. But because his right arm was numb and wouldn't obey commands, he fell face first into a set of shelves. A number of items teetered and dropped to the floor. What felt like a can of soup landed on top of Walter's foot and he sat down hard on the corner of the mattress holding his breath and biting his lip to keep from screaming obscenities.

"Walter! Are you okay? What happened? I can't see you!"

Well, at least the discomfort took care of the erection concerns. Problem number three solved. Hooray. He waited for the pain to peak and begin to abate before he answered gruffly, "I'm fine. At least I think so." His forehead was throbbing and his foot was smarting and he was unable to rub the pain out of either with his numbed and now prickly, tingling hand, but he didn't voice any of that. "I'm understandably a little hesitant to proceed to my intended destination."

Paige rapidly crawled to the end of the mattress and felt around on the wall until she found the doorknob. She opened the bathroom door and switched on the light. "Does that help?"

"Yep. Thanks," he said blinking as his eyes adjusted. He rose and smiled at her sheepishly as he limped on his way.

oOoOoOoOoOo

If there was a more unintentionally hot man in the universe, Paige had yet to meet him. It was completely unfair. And holy hell, had she been sleeping all over him?! And heaven help her, nuzzling him?! True, she was half asleep, but one more second and she would've had her tongue in his ear. And he smelled _so_ good. She should know because his scent was all over her shirt. Because she'd been on top of him.

She dropped her face in her hands. Now that she could no longer use Tim as an excuse, she was having a hard time keeping her feelings for Walter on a leash. And this morning they were running rampant like a pack of wild, rabid dogs. If Paige had one tenth the feelings for the ex SEAL as she had for her boss, her life would be so much easier. But the fact was, she'd never really moved on. Her mother was right. She'd been conning herself all along.

The sound of running water was amplified in the underground room. Might as well make herself useful. Paige got up and felt her way around the futon to where the light switch was mounted on the far wall, sliding her feet forward cautiously so she wouldn't trip over or kick anything that had fallen from the shelf. The fluorescent overhead light blinked then flashed on momentarily blinding her. Walter picked that moment to come out of the bathroom. She couldn't make eye contact yet, so the two of them silently picked up the fallen cans and put them neatly back on the shelf pushing them back a little farther from the edge just in case.

"If-if you don't mind, I think I'll leave the bathroom light on and keep the door open a crack. Just to prevent future accidents," Walter spoke softly, but it was as startling as a pistol shot in the quiet of the room.

Paige looked up at him, eyes widening when she saw his forehead. "That's fine… Oh, no! Look at that goose egg! Sit down. Let me see."

Walter raised his hand and covered the bruise with his palm. "I saw it in the mirror. It's okay."

"No, let me look," Paige fussed. "It's a good thing Ralph can sleep through anything. When he's tired enough, a marching band could go through followed by a tornado and he wouldn't wake up." She was babbling. Why was she nervous?

He sat on the edge of the mattress and she sat beside him. "I-I'm sorry. I was trying to be quiet and not disturb anyone. I guess that didn't work out so well."

"It's okay. You didn't wake him up or he'd be out here asking what happened." Paige gently moved Walter's hand out of the way. "Oh, ouch. If you keep getting head injuries and suffering from oxygen deprivation, our IQs are going to match." She ran her fingers lightly over the injury and let them trail into his hair before she could stop them.

His eyes drifted shut and he whispered, "That would be tragic."

Letting her hands drop to her sides, she responded with a raised eyebrow and a caustic, "Thanks a lot."

Walter's eyes popped open and he quickly amended, "That didn't come out right. I didn't mean… That is… I always say things wrong. I meant, my IQ, my brain is about all I have going for me. You have many other, uh, endearing attributes. While if-if I wasn't smart anymore… I wouldn't be much good to anyone. For example, I could never be like-like, uh, Tim."

"Walter, you have lots of amazing qualities. Too many to list." Paige argued, then she added sarcastically, "And no one is as perfect as Tim. Not even Tim."

"I'm sorry. I don't understand. What-what does that mean?"

"I'm not with Tim anymore."

"Why? What happened? It wasn't because of the move to Jordan, was it? Did I…" Walter was torn between elation and panic that she would blame him for the break up.

"It wasn't ever going to work out. I can see that now. I was trying so hard to have strong feelings for him that it took me awhile to notice, I never really developed those kinds of feelings for him. Does that make any sense?"

Confusion still clouded his expression. "Not really. But we both know I'm no expert."

"I was tired of feeling disappointed and rejected when Tim came along. He was nice. Attractive. Attentive. He treated me so well. And once I told him I would be with him, I didn't want to jerk him around. I was committed. So I tried. I really tried to be with him completely. You asked me why I flaunted my relationship with him in front of… everyone. I think I was trying to convince Tim and the whole team and especially myself that I'd made the right choice and he was with the person I needed to be with. I didn't think I was being vindictive, but maybe I was. Just a little. I was wrong to do that. I ultimately hurt Tim and myself in the process. And you. I'm sorry about that."

"I don't understand why you couldn't wait for me." He murmured, staring at his hands in his lap, "Knowing the difficulties I have…"

Paige's lips thinned and her expression turned sour. "Exactly how long was I supposed to wait? I gave you two years worth of chances. And there were no guarantees you would ever get there..."

She was interrupted when Ralph came rocketing out of the computer room. "Dad!" her son exclaimed, "You need to see this! Someone set off one of the alarms you set up on the computer!"


	9. Chapter 9

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 9**

'Will you hack into my website?' to the scorpion said the spy.

'Will you hack into my website?' to the scorpion said the spy.

'Will you hack into my website?' to the scorpion said the spy.

'Will you hack into my website?' to the scorpion said the spy.

'Will you hack into my website?' to the scorpion said the spy.

The words scrolled over and over on every monitor.

Walter's fingers flew over the keyboard after pulling up the command prompt. The same lines of code repeated infinitely. It took him over two hours to isolate and eradicate all traces of the aggressive and destructive virus.

He thought he'd done some discreet poking around, but he obviously hadn't been discreet enough. When he thought he was tracing the source of Ralph's emails, was he unintentionally leaving a backdoor open to his own system?

It took the genius the better part of another hour to reinforce the firewalls and check the system for any more vulnerabilities. He hated to admit it, but these people were _good_. Better than good. Better than him?

Or were they? A few more keystrokes and something dawned on him. A little more digging and it became evident the FBI wasn't telling them everything. And they were going to be more forthcoming. Starting immediately.

It was barely seven in the morning when Walter emerged from what he and Ralph had dubbed 'the computer cave', so he wasn't surprised to see Paige and her son curled up on the futon asleep. They must have gone back to bed after Ralph had alerted him. It was a good thing the boy had come to get him when he did. In another few hours, the whole system would have crashed with no way to retrieve it and he would have missed the truth entirely.

He stalked to the alarm panel and typed in the code to lift the lockdown mode. Instantly the bunker was filled with loud mechanical groans and clangs as the fire door retracted. The noise woke Paige and Ralph up, but it couldn't be helped. Walter needed answers.

Ignoring their drowsy, questioning looks, he dashed up the stairs two at a time and flung the door open. One agent, Zapata he thought was her name, huddled in a sleeping bag on the floor by the wood burning stove. Her partner, Agent Pickering, was making coffee in the kitchen and staring out the east facing window where he could see the sun was just beginning to rise over the mountains painting the snowy peaks in vibrant pinks and oranges.

But Walter wasn't interested in the view. "I need to talk to Backheim," he said without preamble.

Pickering started at Walter's sudden appearance and brusque manner. Great security he provided. The genius snuck up on him without even trying. "What's this about?" the agent inquired.

"You're wasting time. I need to talk to the agent in charge. I have questions."

"Mr. O'Brien, I'm sure I can give you whatever answers you _need to know_ ," the Fed replied, his tone gratingly patronizing as if he was dealing with a slow child.

"I'm done with the 'need to know' evasions. I'm not some idiot who's scared of my shadow here. I don't need you to shelter me. Especially from the facts. Or the subterfuge. Get Backheim over here. Now."

Pickering gave Walter a dirty look, but he grabbed the walkie off of the counter and depressed the button.

While the genius was glaring at their 'security detail' and impatiently waiting for the agent in charge to show his face, Paige came up the stairs hugging her thick robe around herself. She was closely followed by a tousle-haired Ralph. A wave of protective affection for them mixed with quiet fury at the bureau rolled over Walter as they both sought him out, their expressions a combination of avid curiosity and apprehension.

"What's going on?" Paige asked, but before he could answer her question, Backheim stormed through the door bringing a gust of bitter cold air in with him. Kicking the door shut behind him, he barked, "What's this about, O'Brien?"

"Did you and your agents leave out a few details when you were explaining the circumstances the other day?" Walter's belligerent tone was endearing him to no one.

Ever the peace keeper, Paige opened her mouth to intervene, but her boss stopped her with, "No, Paige. There are times when 'taking the high road' is not an option." His eyes were narrowed and never left the agent's face.

"I don't know what you mean…" Backheim tried.

"Cut the crap," Walter snapped, "I may not be a behaviorist, but you can't hide anything computer-related from me. 197 IQ, remember?" He tapped his temple. "If you are using Ralph as bait against his mother's and my express wishes, we need you to tell us everything. Or we're out of here and we'll make other arrangements. You do realize how easy it would be for us to either go off the grid or go public, right?" At the Fed's horrified look, Walter prompted, "Why don't you start by telling us about this other kid who was supposedly abducted."

Scowling, the unhappy agent gave in. "Her name is Iris Jackson. She's seventeen years old. And we're still not sure whether she was actually kidnapped or… recruited. We've had our eyes on her for a while. She's a highly skilled hacker. The girl was good enough she was given a full ride scholarship to Stanford's school of computer science. Her foster parents said she left for the campus one morning and never came home. We have video footage of her parking her bike. But the next two video cameras on her usual route to class were offline that day."

"How convenient. Recruited by whom? I'm guessing you have someone in mind." Walter was tight lipped, eyebrows raised and arms folded across his chest as he leaned against the kitchen counter staring down Backheim.

Sighing, the agent reluctantly continued, "We have suspicions. No concrete proof… But a CIA agent went rogue a year or so ago. We know he was in contact with this girl on the dark web."

"Which CIA agent exactly. I need a name."

"Mark Willis."

Paige gasped. "Isn't that…?"

"Yes. We've had dealings with him before," Walter cut his eyes momentarily in her direction and nodded once letting her know it was the same agent that wanted to end their lives after the job in Area Fifty-One.

"Are there really other genius kids in danger? Or was that just a ploy to get us involved?"

"Yes," the agent said emphatically, "There are other kids at risk. Ralph is by far the youngest. And he has the highest IQ. All the others are in their later teens. For the most part, they're old enough to emancipate from their legal guardians within months. When they attempted to take Ralph, we saw it as an opportunity to use his skills to find this rogue spy and the girl we think he recruited. Ralph's the only person we know that was getting the emails who is also smarter and faster than her. We needed a way to find them without alerting her to what we're trying to do."

Quivering with outrage, Paige demanded, "So, you lied to get me to allow my son to work for you on a case you're having difficulty solving?!"

"Oh, that's not the worst of it," Walter answered for the Fed, his voice colder than the icy air outside the cabin, "I'm guessing something went wrong with the original plan and they got in a hurry and leaked our location. Dangling Ralph in front of these people like a prize. Hoping it would flush Willis out in the open. Am I right?"

"How did you…? He's perfectly safe… The bunker…"

"They did what?!" Paige's eyes went wide and darted between Walter and the agent.

"Yesterday, when you were in the shower, Pickering and Zapata came downstairs to 'check the security' of the bunker. Zapata kept Ralph and I busy in the main room while Pickering locked himself in the computer cave supposedly testing the security system. He obviously downloaded the virus at that time. I should have known he acted more like an IT guy than an agent assigned to guard someone in protective custody. As soon as I accessed Ralph's Cal Tech emails, the virus was activated. It left a backdoor open to the computer here and gave away our location. I'm sure they were hoping it would eventually crash the system totally before I caught on, but Ralph alerted me as soon as the system was compromised and I was able to backtrack and find the actual source."

The FBI agents' shocked faces would have been comical, if the Walter hadn't been so furious. Talking over Backheim's stuttered attempts to explain, the Scorpion leader addressed Paige, "I've notified Cabe. He's coming to get you and Ralph. You will be going to an undisclosed location until you hear from me. You should go downstairs and get packed. If he got the chopper like I asked him to, he won't be long."

Glowering over her shoulder at the FBI agents, Paige ushered Ralph back down the stairs to get ready to go. Walter trailed behind them and when Backheim tried to follow him a few minutes later, the older genius engaged the fire door and switched the intercom off when the agent also tried to 'talk some sense into him' using that means.

"Walter, what are you going to do? You said Ralph and I were going with Cabe. Does that mean you're going to stay and work with the FBI? We can't trust a thing they say." Paige asked while she hastily shoved things into her bag.

"I don't have much of a choice. Willis is coming sooner rather than later. We just got the confirmation he's known our location for the better part of four hours now and we have no idea where he's coming from. I want this guy caught." Walter was pacing the narrow space like a caged animal.

"I don't see why you can't come with us. Let the agents handle it when Willis gets here."

"Catching him is the only way this will ever be over. I can help with that."

"Then I'm staying too."

Walter squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath trying to contain his agitation, but his reply was still sharper than he intended "No. I need to know you and Ralph are safe."

"What if we're intercepted when we leave?"

"The longer you stand there arguing with me, the more that becomes a possibility. Cabe is more than capable of keeping you safe."

"Walter, this is crazy. I'm not going to be packed off some place like a damsel in distress. Cabe can take Ralph to…"

" _No_ , Paige," Walter fired back, clenching his fists, "I know you don't have the same kinds of feelings for me anymore that I do for you. I know that's my fault. I kept trying to fix it and I only frustrated you further. Way beyond your limits of tolerance to the point where you hardly even see me as a friend. To where you finally gave up on me. I get it. But I hope you can still _trust_ me at least. I told you on the first day we met that I wouldn't let anything happen to you. We know from experience this guy is a merciless killer. And the thought… I have to know you're safe. That's it."

His words hit her like a fist. Paige was struck speechless. Did he really think those things? Did she really push him that far away? She opened her mouth to tell him how wrong he was. But she was halted by muffled noises from upstairs.

Her blood turned to ice at the unmistakable sounds of breaking glass, shouts and gunfire.


	10. Chapter 10

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 10**

 **AN: Someone asked in a review if the villain in this story was Mark Collins. It isn't. I used Mark Willis who was the CIA guy from 'Area 51' who used them to find the CIA spy plane and pilots then wanted to eliminate the team because they figured out the plane was being used to spy on US citizens. I thought he was creepy.**

 **Thank you to everyone who is reviewing. I can be really insecure about my writing and getting feedback lets me know it doesn't suck. LOL So, thanks a million.**

Does anything _ever_ work out the way it should?

He knew that thought was illogical and it was an inefficient use of his brain, but when he heard the gunshots, it was the first place his mind went. He could calculate odds and he could figure statistics in an instant, so why didn't his Plan A ever seem to work? As lightening quick as those notions crossed his mind, Walter shut them out and focused his energy on beginning to formulate a Plan B.

The first inevitable distraction came nanoseconds later when he heard the little distressed noise Paige made and he saw her anxious face. On the heels of that distraction, an alarming idea registered and he ordered bluntly, "Get Ralph out of the computer room. Now. There's video feed from the security cameras that can be pulled up on those monitors. We don't want him to see whatever's going on up there." It wasn't exactly reassuring on his part, but it was the best way he knew to divert her attention away from the circumstances as well as safeguard Ralph from any disturbing images thereby serving two purposes. Concise and efficient was always the way he worked best.

Without uttering a word, Paige left to retrieve Ralph just like Walter knew she would. When they both emerged from the computer cave a few seconds later, he passed them and went in. He needed to assess the happenings on the floor above them. Collecting information would help him to devise a new plan.

Paige poked her head around the door jamb. "What do we do now?" She asked.

Bringing up the security camera views on display, he said absently, "You won't like my answer. It will irritate you."

Walter observed Paige's reflection in one of the screens and noticed when she closed her eyes and turned her face away from the troubling scenes. But when she replied her voice was mostly steady, "Tell me anyway."

"I'm gathering facts. I know you wish I would react more emotionally, but it wouldn't help in this situation. I need to think right now. And facts are exactly what I need to figure out our best options."

The sight of the agents lying on the floor of the cabin above in various states of injury was upsetting to him too, but he had to subdue and bypass those feelings and concentrate on getting Paige and Ralph out alive. Compassion and fear couldn't be prioritized before a resolution could be found. He wished Paige would understand that. There was a time he thought she did, but lately it seemed that his ability to compartmentalize in the heat of the moment only appeared to annoy her. She wouldn't appreciate it, but an android was exactly what she and Ralph needed right then.

"Walter, I get it. I do. What do you need me to do?" Paige's tone subtly indicated a growing trepidation.

He knew it would help her stay calm if she had a task to perform, so tamping down his frustration, he responded with more sensitivity than he normally would and more than he had time for. "We need to get a message to Cabe. He's on his way here and I don't want him walking into an ambush. Also he needs to get an ambulance dispatched as soon as possible after the threat is eliminated. Does your phone get a signal down here?"

"It does if I stand at the top of the stairs by the fire door."

"That's not an ideal place for a phone call. We don't want to give away our location if they don't know we're down here, so you'll need to keep quiet. It will have to be a text message and you and Ralph both need to put all your devices on silent."

With Paige busy for the moment, Walter brought his attention back to the problem at hand. Agent Pickering was down and from what he could tell, Backheim was wounded and close to losing consciousness. He and Zapata were sitting on the floor with their backs pressed to the wall underneath the shattered windows in the living area of the cabin while she nervously tried to stem the blood surging from her boss' thigh. She kept turning terrified eyes toward her partner who was lying on the floor in the kitchen. Because she was distracted she didn't notice, but Walter watched helplessly as an arm eased silently through the casement. The hand at the end of the seemingly disembodied appendage held a taser. Before the genius had time to switch the intercom back on to give warning, the female agent stiffened then slumped to the floor her body jerking and twitching. And a slight figure in a hooded sweatshirt slipped in the window and made quick work of using zip ties to bind up the injured and stunned agents and kicking their firearms to the center of the room. As stealthy as a cat, the figure crept over to the inert Pickering. After the perpetrator checked for a carotid pulse, that agent was deftly bound and disarmed within seconds as well. So much for seventy five percent of their security detail.

Meanwhile in the other cabin, Agent Hart, who looked to be unharmed, was crouched down low beside the wood burning stove. He was furiously trying to raise anyone on the walkie-talkie in his hand; calling over and over demanding a status update. Hart was going to give himself away in a hurry if he wasn't careful.

Walter didn't want the enemy to know he and Paige and Ralph were in the basement, but Hart was in danger of getting himself killed. Against his better judgment, the genius turned on the intercom to cabin number two that housed the irate and confused Fed.

Trying to speak as softly as he could and still be heard, the genius waited until the man took a breath and said, "Hart. You need to stop…"

"O'Brien," the agent thundered, "Hold your position. Can you give me status on the others?"

"I have no intention of leaving the bunker at this point. The other three Feds are disarmed and disabled. You should call for back up immediately. Someone is in the other…"

Agent Hart collapsed as a dark-haired man in a black suit stepped into view and struck him from behind. The man had quite effectively neutralized all their protection.

Oh, boy.

Former CIA operative Mark Willis looked strait into the lens of the security camera, a cruel smile marring his features. "Well, hello again, Mr. O'Brien," he drawled.

Then the screens all went black just before the whole bunker was plunged into darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 11**

 **AN: Okay, angst alert. So beware. Probably one or two more chapters left and I'll try to get it wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow for all of us weary Waige shippers.**

 **This chapter is dedicated to all my fangirl friends in the forum. You'll know why when you read it. ;-) Probably not what you expected, but...**

Paige shrieked a little when the lights went out. She couldn't help it. Her thumbs tapping at warp speed, she sent another frantic text to Cabe. He had yet to respond to her other three, but she hoped he was getting them. She really needed to go find Ralph but she would lose the one bar of reception she had when she left her position by the door.

Switching on her phone's flashlight feature, she treaded carefully down the stairs into the inky darkness. The only things visible were the objects in the small circle of her light's beam and she had to aim it down at the stairs or risk falling and breaking a leg or worse.

"Ralph?" Paige called out in a raspy stage whisper. "Walter?" The quiet was eerie and oppressive. Not even the muted hum of the heating unit could be heard anymore. She guessed the power was completely out.

The two geniuses were huddled together on the futon around the thin shaft of light from Walter's cell. They looked up in tandem at her approach.

"Mom, Walter thinks the bad guys took out the backup generator as well as the main power source," Ralph piped up. Paige was relieved he didn't act scared. As usual he had utmost faith in his chosen father figure.

"My guess is they siphoned the gas out of it before they came inside the cabin. That effectively makes us blind and deaf for the time being. Ralph and I found a couple of car batteries when we were cleaning yesterday, if we can splice one into the wiring, we may be able to reestablish a connection to the outside world via the computer. At least for a little while." Walter explained and moved to retrieve one of the batteries in question.

The three of them squeezed into the computer cave and the two geniuses began working on hooking the system up while Paige ran back and forth getting them tools and supplies they asked for. Rummaging for anything else they might find useful, she managed to unearth a battery operated camp lantern and had it blazing away beside the desk in no time.

When she was out of the room trying to find a longer length of wire, she heard a jarring metallic clang reverberate from above followed by muted voices speaking rapidly.

"Walter? Is it possible for them to take the fire door off?" she asked, alarmed.

"No," He replied distractedly from his prone position under the desk beside Ralph. "It's like a garage door," he paused and stripped a wire with his teeth, then continued, "Only it's made of galvanized steel sections, so it's heavy and it's on a track. It's fairly impenetrable especially without electricity."

"Well, someone or something is moving around above our heads. And they're using tools."

All of them stopped to listen and it wasn't long before they heard a faint slithering sound then the dulled squeal of an electric screwdriver. It was coming from directly above the main room of the bunker.

"The single point of failure," Walter muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry. What was that?" Paige inquired nervously.

"The heating ducts. They are the single point of failure in this bunker."

"What are they doing?" Ralph asked.

"I can't know with one hundred percent certainty, but my best guess is they are inside the air ducts above our heads and they are using tools to disassemble them at the seams where two pieces are attached. If they are able to accomplish that, I calculate they will be in the basement with us in a matter of minutes."

Walter scooted out from under the desk and stopped for a few seconds looking back and forth between one fearful face and another. "Paige, you and Ralph lock yourselves in the cave. I have an idea."

"Aren't you coming in here with us?" Ralph asked fretfully.

"I'll join you in a minute if I can. Keep trying to reestablish a connection to the battery's power. We may need the computer to contact Cabe and the others."

Paige stepped into the little room as Walter stepped out. When the door was only open a few inches, she stuck her hand through the crack and grabbed his wrist. "Be safe. Come in and join us the minute you can, okay?" On impulse, she pulled him toward her and placed a hurried kiss on his startled mouth. Then the door shut and he was once again engulfed in darkness.

oOoOoOoOoOo

The contact lasted less than half a second, but he could still feel her lips on his as if she'd branded him. However he didn't have time to waste wondering what the kiss meant.

Once he heard the lock engage behind him, Walter picked up a metal file he'd found among the tools Paige had brought them and quickly wedged it inbetween the two shelving units that hid the door to the computer room thereby handily trapping the liaison and her son inside. Knowing Paige the way he did, it was likely she would try to come out and help him when she heard the loud noises he was about to make. He couldn't let her do that and jeopardize her safety or Ralph's. Their survival was of utmost importance. Cabe could let them out when he arrived in the event Walter was unsuccessful or incapacitated or… well, best not to contemplate that possibility.

Doing some quick calculations of trajectory, he dragged the futon mattress over and positioned it on the floor. Then using his phone's flashlight to find the other car battery and a pair of jumper cables, he began to implement his idea just as a screw fell from the duct work in the ceiling and landed on the floor at his feet. He had no time to lose.

The genius set his phone on a shelf with the light facing upward. He draped the cables around his neck. When he discovered its handle was split in two, he dragged the heavy battery under one arm while he used the shelves as a ladder. It was cumbersome to climb one handed and in the low lighting it was hard to find places to hold, but time was of the essence and he couldn't waste a second trying to figure out a more efficient way to climb.

Grunting with the strain, he pulled himself up to the next level and a ceramic crock on the top began to teeter right above him. Walter tried to steady it with his knuckles, but it couldn't be done without losing his grip on the edge. So the container wobbled and dropped to its side, spilling it contents in a sticky river of golden brown fluid. Honey flowed down on the genius' head, shoulders and arms and slowly dripped in thick globs around his feet two shelves down. His shoes slid in the tacky ooze and he almost fell backward more than once, but he finally made it to the top.

Walter clumsily maneuvered the battery from under his arm, sliding it onto the horizontal surface and steadying it on the top shelf. It wouldn't do for him to drop it and have to go back down and recover it. He could see a gap in the air duct with light coming through it and the murmurs of the predators were getting louder. He was almost too late already.

The viscous, syrupy honey glued his shirt to his chest and dribbled from his hair into his eyes. He swiped at it with one hand then uncoiled the cables from around his neck, he attached the claw clips to what he hoped were the correct terminals. He removed his pen knife from his pocket and stretched up as far as he could to cut a hole in the fiberglass insulation covering the part of the duct closest above his head. If he could just implement his plan in time, it would act like the taser they'd used earlier and he could hopefully immobilize Willis and his partner until Cabe arrived.

Walter took a moment to tap the unattached claw clips together to test the flow of power. Sparks sizzled and spit, dazzling his eyes for a moment. Once again he stretched up. His hands were made slippery by the gooey liquid coating them, so he almost dropped the cables. But he caught them awkwardly, his fingers accidentally sliding to the copper ends, and then he reached up and touched the clips to the sheet metal of the duct.

An explosive pop resounded across the gloomy basement and burning pain seered Walter's hands as he was thrown backward off the metal shelving unit, landing on his back on the futon mattress. He grunted as all the air whooshed out of his lungs. When his head finally made contact, he lay there for several long minutes, stunned and blissfully blank, his ears buzzing.

He didn't hear Paige screaming his name.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Ralph got the security cameras hooked up and back online just in time for him and his mother to see Walter flying away from the shelves and across the room trailing streams and droplets of thick liquid that in the feeble illumination provided by the cell phone appeared to be blood. He landed hard on his back and lay there unmoving.

And Paige just lost it. She didn't have the time to tell him. She had so much she needed to say.

She heard someone screaming for him and it was several moments before she realized it was her own voice she was hearing. Shaking and sobbing, she unlocked the door and yanked. Nothing. The door wouldn't budge. She tugged and pulled until it felt like she would wrench her arms out of their sockets.

It was only when she heard her son try to reassure her that she began to bring herself under some semblance of control. "Mom?!" He said bravely, but he had tears welling in his eyes, "Mom, please. It's going to be okay. Dad's going to be okay. He has to be, right?"

She wrapped her arms around him and clung to him. And they wept.


	12. Chapter 12

**FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY MATTER**

 **Chapter 12**

 **AN: Happy Scorp Monday! Here's the final installment. A big thank you to everyone for the kind words of encouragement. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review.**

Paige was not okay.

Walter would recover. He sat in the back of an ambulance while a paramedic tended to the burns on his hands. Still talking a little louder than normal over the ringing in his ears, he was rattling on to Ralph about how fortunate he was to be liberally coated in honey because apparently the goopy substance doesn't conduct electricity and its properties, blah, blah… something about a lack of charged particles and ions or some other physics nonsense. It was all the usual gobbledy gook to Paige.

Ralph was perfectly fine. Once the lights blinked back on and he saw Walter sit up, the boy was just great. As soon as Cabe released them from their forced captivity in the computer room, her son made a beeline to his mentor and had been stuck to the man's side ever since. He kept rhapsodizing about how utterly awesome Walter's plan turned out to be, hero worship obvious in every nuance of his mien.

The FBI agents would live. Pickering was critical, but they managed to life flight him to a nearby hospital and he was expected to pull through. Backheim and Hart's wounds were mostly superficial, but they were both transported via ambulance to get patched up by the closest overworked ER physician.

Even Mark Willis and his partner, who turned out to be the seventeen year old genius the FBI thought he'd kidnapped, were going to make it. The girl was the only one actually inside the ventilation system, but the ex spy was standing near by and leaning in giving instructions to her. His hand was in contact with the duct and Walter's makeshift taser idea was enough to put him out of commission until Cabe and the rest of the cavalry arrived.

But Paige was not okay.

Physically, she was completely unharmed. But she was an emotional dumpster fire as the company shrink would say. Walter had been in mortal danger before, but like a phoenix he kept rising from the ashes of whatever treacherous situation in which he found himself. And she'd never really believed he would be gone forever. His intellect always saved him in the nick of time. To her he'd always seemed invincible, thriving on adrenaline.

But this time she actually thought she'd lost him. And there was so much she'd left unsaid. Everything she'd been angry about seemed so small, petty and insignificant in the face of losing him irrevocably. It was way past time to tell him.

Cabe strolled over and placed an arm around her shoulders. "Are you sure you're alright?" He asked the question so much like a concerned father would it caused the tears that were still hovering too close to the surface to prickle at her eyes again.

"Not really." Paige paused to take a deep breath before saying, "Listen, Cabe, Walter and I need to have a conversation. Could Ralph ride back in the helicopter with you and stay with you for a little while? I'd like to drive Walter back in the rental car so we can have some privacy to talk."

"I'd love some one on one with the kid and he'll love riding in the chopper. So it's win-win. He's welcome to stay over at my place tonight if it helps. Happy and Toby are supposed to stop by for pizza and a game of Risk later. I could use a genius partner against those two."

"Actually, Cabe, that would be great. If it wouldn't be too much trouble."

"It'd be no trouble at all, Paige. I love having Ralph around. You know that. Just let me go get his duffle and we'll be all set."

After the helicopter took off for LA, Paige busied herself loading Walter's and her things in the trunk while the genius finished giving his statement to the authorities. Her hands shook and her mind was a jumble as she put their bags in the car. Where did she even start? So often she'd been impatient with his inability to express his feelings, but here she was struggling with translating her own into words.

When she slid into the driver's seat, she was no closer to figuring out what to say. So, when they began the long drive back, the loaded silence festered between them again.

"You're mad at me for trapping you, aren't you?" Walter said nervously, his eyes trained toward the scenery out the window. Paige could tell he was bracing for her backlash.

"No. Well, yes, actually. That _was_ pretty underhanded. But mostly I'm trying to find a way to say some things, and I don't know where to start."

His gaze dropped to his mesh and gauze-wrapped hands in his lap. "I can start if you want, because I have some things to say as well. I don't think it's a secret I can't stay angry with you for long." His mouth kicked up on one side in a wry smile. "I understand why you said what you said to me when I was in the rocket. You were trying to save me. I get that. When I knew Willis and his accomplice were going to breach the bunker, I couldn't worry about what you would think. I would have done anything to keep you and Ralph out of harm's way. Even if you didn't understand. Even if it hurt your feelings or made you mad at me. And while I'm more protective of the two of you for obvious reasons, I would have done the same thing for any of our friends too. So-so I understand what you did. I have finally come to the conclusion I was upset about everything else mostly because I was embarrassed and hurt. And-and, uh, jealous. I was juvenile and wrong and I really messed up. If you will tell me what I could have done better, I will endeavor to make different choices in the future. I want to be a better…f-friend."

Paige gripped the steering wheel tightly and stared at the road ahead trying to bring herself under control. She'd made such a mess of it all. "No. You're wrong, Walter."

"I just said I was wrong. How I can learn from my mistakes if you won't…"

"Stop. I wasn't talking about the immaturity or the pettiness. Like covering Tim's face in a photo or putting a school desk in the elevator and calling it an office…"

"Not my best decisions."

"Agreed. But I wasn't referring to that. Today, when I thought… For a minute, I thought… You weren't going to make it. Suddenly none of it mattered anymore. You were wrong to think I only said… it back to you because I wanted to save you. I would have said anything, but when I told you I-," Paige choked up and her lip trembled. She swallowed hard. "I love you? Walter, I meant every word."

At first, he sat there in the passenger seat, motionless and mute, so she began to babble. "I realize now the intensity of those feelings really terrified me. And I started to doubt you even actually acknowledged your feelings for me because you only voiced them when you were hypoxic. For all I knew those emotions were locked in your subconscious and when you woke up, you would be back to believing love doesn't exist. And I'd already made the decision to be with Tim. I think now it was just as much of a shield as anything else, and I used it to keep you at a distance. I did my best to see your flaws and stay mad at you, because it was easier than taking a chance and failing. I didn't know if I could survive…"

"Pull over." Walter looked up at her, his eyes blazing with fierce, almost frightening passion.

"What?"

"I love you too, Paige. More than ever. Just pull over."

The car glided to a halt on the shoulder of the road. The second she shifted into park, Walter started to grab her by the shoulders. But he stopped short and winced. "Damn these hands!"

Smiling, she gently took his bandaged hands in hers and placed a kiss on the inside of each wrist. "I don't know. I kinda like 'em."

With no hesitation, Walter leaned across the console and claimed her lips with his. A bolt of desire shot straight through Paige as she kissed him back fervently her tongue sliding into his mouth and stroking his. A husky groan escaped him and she felt it all the way through her body. Her hands left his and made their way to his chest. She slipped her fingers inside his open jacket and stroked him over his shirt. She couldn't get close enough.

He shuddered against her, nipping at her tongue and lips. Then he trailed his open mouth down to her neck and around to the soft spot just behind her ear. He held his hands up on either side of them, wanting so much to touch her and growling with frustration that he couldn't.

The honk of a passing motorist brought them back to their senses. They broke apart panting and staring at one another. Paige suddenly had the absurd recollection of every tepid kiss she'd ever shared with Tim. All of them put together didn't add up to a spark compared with the inferno she'd just experienced with Walter. What the hell was she thinking dating Tim?

"We should probably, uh…" He straightened in his seat, shifting a little uncomfortably.

Clearing her throat, she put the car in drive and started out again. And burst into giggles.

Walter gave her the adorable confused frown she loved. "What's funny?"

"You're even a genius at kissing."

The resulting naughty grin on his face made her want to pull over and have her wicked way with him, broad daylight and public road be damned.

Now that they both admitted their feelings, the walls were down and the open communication began to flow freely. They spent the rest of the drive talking honestly about their concerns about Ralph and the team and about the possible ripple effects. After Paige confessed her fears of abandonment, he spoke about his fears of inadequacy. Together they came up with strategies to cope with issues and made a commitment to each other to work through it all as a team, shoring up what was lacking in each other and striving to improve things together.

The five hours flew by and in no time they were pulling into the lot behind the garage. Tomorrow was plenty soon enough to turn in the rental car.

Paige shut off the ignition and turned to face Walter. "You still have honey in your hair." As if that settled something, she got out of the car and walked around to open the door for Walter.

"I, uh, did the best I could at the bunker, but..." He held up his hands as a way to elaborate.

Nodding, she continued, "And you can't wash your hair now because of your hands, right. The paramedic said to keep the dressing dry."

He smiled ruefully in answer.

"Then I'm staying. I can help."

Walter's eyes went a little wide, but he certainly wasn't going to argue. Both of them began to unload the car, Paige hanging things over his outstretched arms so he could carry them in.

After dumping the bags on the sofa, the two of them walked toward the kitchen.

"Do you want something to eat first or do you want me to start by washing your hair?"

Staring at her a little warily, he stammered, "I, uh, my-my hair, I guess."

"Be right back," Paige said and left him standing awkwardly in the kitchen while she went to fetch shampoo and a towel.

Seemingly all business, she set her things down by the sink. Looking at him approvingly, she began to slowly unbutton his shirt. "We wouldn't want to get this wet." Despite Paige's outer calm, her husky tone and trembling fingers gave her away.

Walter's heart was hammering and he was tongue-tied. A few of his hottest fantasies started off just like this.

When all the buttons were unfastened, she smoothed the shirt down his arms baring his chest. She draped the garment on the back of a chair.

Unable to resist, Paige reached out and caressed his warm skin. He released an involuntary groan and his eyes drifted shut. His wrapped hands came to rest at her waist and he tugged her to him.

The kiss started slowly and sensually, their lips meeting and parting and teasing with feather lightness. But it escalated quickly into a frantic, sexy, mutual mauling, tongues wrestling and sliding in and out, mimicking the act they'd both been craving for far too long.

As Walter sucked on a particularly sensitive spot on her neck, Paige gasped his name, her nails scoring his back. A growl rumbled deep in his throat and he almost whined with exasperation, "I just wish I could touch you."

"Wait. I have an idea," she rasped breathlessly.

Pulling back slightly, his eyes half hooded, his gaze devoured her. Oh, my.

"Let's get those honey packets Toby hoards from Kovelsky's. You tell me where you'd like to touch me. I'll dab some on, and you can use your mouth instead."

A smart man would agree to a brilliant offer like that, but a genius would spend all night improving on her idea.


End file.
